Council - Regular Meeting

This time I'd like to call the regular town council meeting to order on this June 2nd, 7 p.m. So let us please stand by our pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God,

Let us pray. Lord, we invite you to this meeting tonight. And again, we ask that through your wisdom, your guidance, and all that we do, it's helping to benefit all of us citizens of Nashville. Amen. The first item on our agenda is approval of minutes for our May 5th meeting. Did you find any corrections to those? If not, do I hear a motion to approve? The next item on our agenda is the public comments. If you are signed up to speak about our budget, wait until we get to our open hearing to speak about the budget, please. The first person is Cynthia Lewis, would you please come, state your name and address. Lucas.

Hello, council members. My name is Cynthia Lucas, and I live in Regent's Estates just inside the city of Nashville. I told I had three minutes to do this, so let me get started. I'm here tonight to ask the council to address the issue of city trucks being parked in residential neighborhoods, including on public streets and within street right-of-ways. While we respect the hard-working men and women who drive these vehicles and understand the important role they play in our economy, residential neighborhoods are not designed to serve as truck parking facilities. There are several reasons why this issue concerns me and my neighbors. First, safety. Semi-trucks create significant visibility problems for drivers, pedestrians, children, bicyclists, and emergency vehicles. When large trucks are parked along neighborhood streets, they can obstruct straight lines at intersections and driveways, increasing the risk of accidents, especially when children are playing in the streets. Second, quality of life. Residential neighborhoods are intended to be places where families can enjoy a peaceful, quiet environment. Large commercial vehicles can create noise from engines, refrigeration units, air brakes, early morning departures, and disrupt our nearby neighbors. Third, infrastructure impact. Neighborhood streets are generally designed for passenger vehicles, not heavy commercial trucks. The weight of these vehicles can accelerate wear and tear on pavement curves, drainage systems resulting in higher maintenance costs that are ultimately borne by taxpayers. I see it every day in my neighborhood. Fourth, appearance and property values. Residents invest significant resources into maintaining their homes and neighborhoods. Multiple semi-trucks parked on residential streets can negatively impact the appearance of the community and may influence how prospective buyers see our neighborhoods. Finally, rights-of-ways are intended to support transportation, public safety, and utility access, not long-term storage for commercial vehicles. Allowing these areas to become truck parking locations can interfere with their intended public service. We respectfully ask the council to consider strengthening and enforcing regulations that prohibit the parking of semi-trucks and other large commercial vehicles in residential neighborhoods within street right-of-ways, except when actively making deliveries or providing services. And our goal is not to target truck drivers. Rather, it is to preserve the safety, character, and livability of our neighborhoods for our residents. I thank you for your time and your consideration.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. And thanks for sharing, and I'm sure we'll look into it. And we'll see, you know, .

Thank you.

Thank you. William Lucas. Oh, I'm sorry, but we're together. Oh, okay. Thank you. James Baker.

I live at 103 East Green Street, and I have lived there for the past eight years. It's shortly after the Georgian stumptown behind me was sold to the Graswell Farm. The house next to me deteriorated over the next eight years. was directly right behind my house and zoning request was asked from going from R10 single to a business and it was to become office spaces. Several of my neighbors attended the board meeting, planning board meeting and expressed they were opposed to the zoning request. After the listing of all the property owners The planning board anonymously denied the request, and then I went before the town council at this time, and the council saw what Rappaport was completely welcoming Jordan Stump home into something that was And that was, I was deeply disappointed of why did it not, at that time, was not re-tabled and went back to the planning board for review. But that wasn't even considered. Y'all just went ahead and ran and I really did not know what to expect. And at that time, and I stated that nobody, not everyone had gone to know how my house Feet from the driveway and that garage. I mean, feet. I don't have any bearing. And just think about how would y'all like to be sitting out in the porch? I'm going to hear car doors, cars going in and out. Ms. Burns, I thought you were on the phone for 20 minutes. And you took down notes while we were considered. That was a 74 at the time. And then when it became before, You guys, and even y'all guys that first saw it, y'all, wow, didn't like it, especially the white part. The lady next door to me that lives on Lucille, she had read it in the paper, and even if the planning board was going to accept it, they were going to require a fence on both sides, and it was supposed to be a white vinyl fence. But at that time, it came back to being a busted fence, and that really, really cost her some house. But today I spoke to Mr. Taylor and he assured me that the fence was going to be quite vinyl. I was glad to hear that. But like I'm saying, it was supposed to be down both sides. And I just spoke to Mr. Taylor before on it. That's Ben Strickland, his owner still.

All right. But thank you so much for sharing your concern.

The next person. Excuse me. I didn't know we were supposed to sign up to speak, but I have something to say on the matter. But the first woman that spoke on recently, I didn't know you were going to sign up for this speech.

Okay. Okay. Just come on up and tell us your name and your address, please.

Excuse me.

Good afternoon. My name is Patricia, and we live on 104 Queen Anne Avenue. And I'm here to recall what the First Lady said about the semi-truck, 18-wheel truck. Yes, ma'am. We own one of those. And we have lived there for 30 years. We never had complaints. Our property is always clean and in order. We have had about four or five police officers come to our home, which is so embarrassing, like we have committed a crime. And we're just simply hardworking people trying to make deliveries back home. His destination from his business is from home to his, you know, to his home. to make another delivery. This has been going on and on for the last several weeks, calling and interrupting our life. It's just so embarrassing and it's very upsetting to have to come down here and talk about this. I have no neighbors on my street that have issues. And when he do come in, whether it's night or day, you can't hear him come in because he put off So he won't disturb the natives that are sleeping. So all the things we're doing is trying to survive in this society. Not to be harassed. Coming by my house, taking pictures of a truck sitting and it's not bothering anybody. We had kids live next door, across the street. They ride their bikes all the time. Through there and play the ragdoll cops and everything. And our truck is not an asshole to the public because it's a very new truck. And like I said, we keep up our property. So I don't know where all this is coming from or what is the problem with people trying to make a living. And maybe y'all can do your investigation and let me know. Because as long as I've been there, it's not a HOA resident. The state property stops it when you come first in the home region. It says the state union is there. So it's a private property. private sector, but that's what we wanted to say tonight because I think it's so unfair for you to complain about something that does not have any bearing on what you want to do. I don't know what you want us to do. And from my understanding, she don't even stay on Coonville Avenue, but yet you got all these complaints about what's going on. She passed my resume today, And about 20, 25 minutes later, the officer chief came. I had a cookout. People with family, my little bitty grandkitty, talking about the police is here. And just to say about Detroit. It's not a good look. We all try to be neighbors and help each other on that street. We look out for each other. We don't do this to tear each other down. Okay, you're three minutes out. Thank you for sharing your story.

Chris Sandy.

Chris Sandy, 720 South Body Street, International Bill of Rights Supply. It's a continuation of some of my speech, a speech for we the people. When Ronald Reagan said to the government, it's not the answer, it's the problem sometimes. Ordinances and that we have in place that have cause and effect. And we have to be very careful that we might want to kill the cow, but we get rid of the hamburger. And so we've got to be really careful with that, about how things go in place and how it affects business. I know we've been assigned ordinances we have now. It really affects businesses to be able to advertise and bring attention to what we own, which is small-town America. We don't like to be put back in warehouses getting inside and people need to see the cause and effect. People want to feel what's going on with regards to what your business is. And so also we look at these ordinances and stuff. We can't be selective with these. We can't pick and choose where we use them. So when we put something in place, we can't say, oh, we're going to just use it for this or for this business or this person or whatever. It's got to be for everybody. That's the way we treat it. And that can be long-reaching. And I'm just asking, please, pay attention to this and watch how that can positively or negatively affect business in our community because there's some negative things going on right now that's hurting us. And you cannot misuse, abuse, or take these ordinances and misconstrue what they are. Use an ordinance for tomatoes with oranges. You just can't do that. And so some of that's been going on. And the appeals process is going to be talking about raising these fees to appeal. And every small business, I'm fortunate, luckily, I can afford it, but everybody can't. And so for people to be able to stand up and defend themselves, especially very small businesses or individuals, you know, we just raised these fees last year from like $200 to appeal to like $325 or something like that, and now we're talking about going to $400 or $500. even though I can afford it, $400 or $500 a lot, and say, hey, wait a minute. This is not right. So I ask that we take a real, real, real stiff moment and think about the cause and effect of things we're doing and what are we trying to attempt to do here and what's best for the people and for the small business. These small businesses, I know my own. I've had some rough times. You know, something comes up a hundred dollars and it can change your whole outlook for that moment. And it's important to know that when a small business has to buy the stuff, sell the stuff, have all that responsibility, pay the taxes that go with it, and run the business. There's a lot of us where, unlike some businesses, organizations, money just

and then Sharon. Louis, you wanted to speak about the budget and the budget you'll bring up when we have the other. Would you come up and speak on the other?

Louis Smith, resident of Nashville. With the videos being on YouTube and you're The address is actually getting kind of personal on the people we sign up and put our addresses down so it is part of the record. obviously, but I also think that maybe property owner, resident, business owner to give perspective to the comments. So I just ask that you make some consideration until you both comment positively on that. Thank you, Louis.

Next is Larry. Larry, yours is on the budget. So could you wait until we get to the public hearing about our budget? Thank you. Next item on our agenda. I didn't admit anybody, I hope. The next item on our agenda is old business, the annexation petition.

Randy? Mayor and Council, we've received a completed annexation application from Vicki and Steve Stratton. I'm sorry, Sutton, to annex their property at 1278 Red Oak Road into the town of Nashville. There's attached to that the certificate of sufficiency for that annexation. So the property right now is owned A1, and they want to keep the property zoned that way, but to connect to the town's new water system that is now on Red Oak Road. So at this time, the council can open the scheduled public hearing on their annexation and receive oil and rig comments on that annexation. And upon closing that public hearing, the mayor can call for a vote in favor of the council to approve Ordinance 26118, annexing 1278 Red Oak Road into the town of Nashville.

Do I hear a motion that we go into the public hearing concerning this annexation petition? Second. All in favor, let it be known by saying aye. Aye. Is there anyone that would like to speak to this in the audience? Well, if not, do I hear a motion to close the public hearing? Second. All those in favor, let it be known by saying aye.

Aye.

So at this time, we will approve the annexation with Ordinance 2026-18. Do I hear a motion? Is there a second? Second. All those in favor? If not, I say aye. The motion carries. The next item on our agenda is our budget for 26-27. So before we go over that and have our public hearing, I would just like to talk with you from my heart about some things. While creating the 2026-27, the council department's head, manager, finance officer had really three main goals. We have others, but the main goals were to keep all citizens safe, to provide adequate services, to keep the great town of Nashville a place where people wanted to live, and to raise a family and work, and just enjoy the small town atmosphere of love, joy, and peace. It takes much more effort and more power, manpower, to keep our town safe than it did even three years ago. You just don't know. As you know, drugs are rampant in so many towns. We cannot allow this to happen to our good town of Nashville. Crime is up in neighboring towns. We again do not want this to happen to our Nashville. Again, manpower. Equipment is needed to prevent us from being infested with crime. And let me say to the citizens that have discussed the budget with me, that's what they want more than anything is to keep this town safe. Yes, it was necessary to increase the water and the sewer rates. We're dependent on Rocky Mount for a majority of our water and sewer treatment. They did not increase their rates last year, neither did we. But they did increase them this year, so we had no choice but to increase ours. We also had to build another fire station last year. to keep the people in the area that would like five minutes their property. If we couldn't get to them, then their insurance went up. And we did have to hire one additional fireman, but we had to do everything we could to provide services for our citizens. I observed the town manager, the finance officer, the heads of the department putting effort and energy into this budget. Many times they were told to cut more. then even more, but again, have a budget that will keep our citizens safe and provide adequate services. The council also worked diligently during the budget work sessions. This was observed by the citizens that came to the meetings and also by the staff, the staff that was here each time. Again, they too wanted Nashville to be a safe town and able to provide services needed. And the goal was to keep a balanced budget. Remember, the Town Council, we're citizens too. So every time an increase is made, it just does not affect you. It affects us also. But to keep Nashville a great and safe place to live in, the taxes had to increase a minimum amount. We are here for you and we try to do what's right for all citizens. So I just felt to tell you that from our hearts and watching the people work diligently on this budget. Council, do you have anything to add?

I agree with everything you said. I just have one potential correction. I believe that Rocky Mountain did increase their fees by 8% last year. But we absorbed that. We did not pass it on to the consumer. It was two times. It was last year 8%, the year before 8%. We never passed it on to the end consumer. And so those came out of our enterprise fund balance, and we just cannot continue to do that. Thank you.

Okay, anybody else have anything to say? Okay, if not, Randy, most of you have seen the budget. Wasn't it put online for people?

It was, and it's on the table here tonight. People may follow along if they choose to. The town clerk put a nice table of contents on it, listing the major parts of it. So the budget that's proposed this evening for FY26-27 fiscal year, it is a balanced budget as required by North Carolina General Statute 159.8. um this proposed budget does include a two cent tax increase to the council tax rate which will take it from 59 cents per hundred to 61 cents per hundred and a 15 increase in water and sewer rates and as we just mentioned you know we've we've absorbed uh the last two years of rate increases from our from the city of rocky mount and Unfortunately, this year it wasn't in the cards to absorb that anymore. Anyway, the town water rate will increase 83 cents from 55 from $5.50 per 1,000 gallons to $6.33. The base water rate will increase $2.84 from $19 to $21.85. The in-town sewer rate will increase $1.80 from $12 per 1,000 gallons to $13.80. The sewer base fee will also increase It says 586. I think it's 430-something. From $29 to $33.36. The budget overall is $17,440,000, which is about $822,000 more or 4% more than the adaptive budget in 2006, which was $16,618,000. The council has established a fiscal goal of maintaining the general fund fund balance that is equal to half the general fund's annual expenses. This proposed budget does achieve that level of fund balance with the projected ending fund balance of $5,712,000 compared to $5,072,000 for half a year's general fund expenses. And again, per NC General Statute 19-159-12, public notice on the proposed budget was published in the May 21st, 2026 edition of the Nashville Graphic, as well as posted on the town's website and social media. And upon conclusion of the public hearing, the council may consider adoption and approval of Ordinance 2617, approving the town's FY27 budget, which begins July 1st, 2026, and ends June 30th, 2027.

Do I have a motion to open the public hearing concerning that budget?

We do. Thank you.

Is there a second? All those in favor, let it be known by saying aye. Aye. Louis, Tim, you are on this list. You might join us to speak.

Now, I am here to say that as a local government retiree, I understand local government finance. I'm also a local government retiree who has not had a raise since 2014. However, I do support the budget that is presented. And I know there's a lot of discussion about raising the water rate to about 17%. and I do support that because I'm also a volunteer with this fire department here in town and I serve this community and I know that our water system is failing. We had a leak, we had a lot of problems with it. No fault of our public works department. Jason, I want to make sure you hear me, that I completely support the public works, I completely support the fire department, but I'm tired of our infrastructure failing and I do support us moving forward situation where we don't have water and then we got insurance claims because of negligence on the town and what's that doing to our fees and what's that doing to our insurance as well. So I do hope that we are going to take advantage of some of these properties that we've been have to get ourselves back closer to being self-sufficient with our water system will not let the city of Rocky Mountain, which I retired from, dictate how we do with our water rates. The water rates are, we're very dependent upon them. What happened with our previous leadership and the fire station, as you mentioned, that was kicked down the road and kicked down the road and the cost went up, up, up. Build the water tower, Get ready for the future of the station, the fire station, public safety complex, and go ahead and let's move this town forward. We cannot keep having development without moving the town forward as well. I'm proud of the elephant in the room on this comment, but it is what it is. Thank you. Thank you, Louis. Larry.

I'm Larry High, I'm a citizen of the nation. This previous gentleman, he said a lot of what I had on my mind. It bothers me that this town is so dependent on Rocky Mountain. Years ago, Rocky Mountain was known as the city of the rise. I'm sure it was on the rise. If you think it's on the rise, go ahead and ride around and look. Maybe it was that. none of them right uh things going on over there with their castle we all hear the news and i don't know exactly what's going on but we we have got to figure out a way the castle's got to figure out a way i know we can't become independent like overnight so maybe start something to build add wells if possible that would have to be possible if we can one or two a year whatever you know And over a period of time, it might be that we can break away from Rocky Mountain. I'm afraid that they may go under. They've got people watching them every day. You hear it in the news. I'm not telling you anything that's not done. I just encourage you to try to figure out some way to gradually start breaking away from Rocky Mountain. Because don't worry about the price going up. It's going up. And it's hopefully just once a year. There's no telling what's gonna happen over there. And so that's what I got to say.

Thank you Larry, appreciate it. Who else would like to speak? Okay, Virginia.

Virginia Budzinski, 400 East Church Street, Nashville. Good evening Mayor, members of Town Council, Town Manager, and fellow residents. I appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight regarding the water and sewer rate increase affecting the residents of Nashville. I also appreciate the response I received from Consulwoman Kate Burns. And I also appreciate the comments that the two gentlemen before me had made. Like many citizens, I understand that utility systems cost money to operate and maintain. I understand that there are times when increases are necessary because of infrastructure improvements, treatment costs, inflation, or environmental requirements. Most residents are willing to support reasonable increases when they clearly benefit the community and are directly tied to actual service costs. HOWEVER, WHAT CONCERNS MANY OF US TONIGHT IS THAT THIS PROPOSED INCREASE APPEARS TO BE TIED NOT SIMPLY TO THE COST OF PROVIDING WATER, BUT THE FINANCIAL PROBLEMS RECENTLY UNCOVERED IN ROCKY MOUNT. PUBLIC REPORTS, STATE AUDIT FINDINGS, AND NEWS COVERAGE HAVE DESCRIBED SERIOUS FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS WITHIN THE CITY OF ROCKY MOUNT, INCLUDING OVERSPENDING, DECLINING RESERVES, AND BROADER FINANCIAL INSTABILITY. THE CONCERN BEING RAISED BY NATIONAL RESIDENTS IS SIMPLE AND FAIR. Why should Nashville residents, seniors on fixed incomes, and local businesses be expected to absorb increases that may be helping another city recover from financial problems unrelated to the actual cost of our water service? Nashville residents did not create Rocky Mountain's financial situation, yet we are being asked to shoulder part of the burden through higher utility bills. This issue is especially important because utilities are not optional expenses. Every family needs water. Every senior citizen needs sewer service. Every small business depends on these services to survive. A 15% increase may not seem significant on paper, but for working families, retirees, and people already struggling with groceries, insurance, taxes, and housing costs, it matters. I understand that these increases have already been scheduled to be implemented, and I respectfully ask this council to provide complete transparency to the public. Specifically, what portion of this increase reflects actual increases in water production and delivery costs? What portion may be tied to Rocky Mountain's broader financial recovery efforts? What protections exist for Nashville residents under the wholesale agreement? And what long-term alternatives are being explored so Nashville is not entirely dependent on one supplier? RESIDENTS DESERVE CLEAR ANSWERS BEFORE BEING ASKED TO PAY SUBSTANTIALLY MORE EACH MONTH. I ALSO ENCOURAGE THIS COUNCIL TO ADVOCATE STRONGLY ON BEHALF OF NATIONAL CITIZENS AND NOT SIMPLY PASS THESE COSTS ALONG WITHOUT CHALLENGING THE JUSTIFICATIONS BEHIND IT. WE SHOULD NOT BE BULLIED BY THE CITY OF ROCKINROCK. THIS IS NOT JUST A BUDGET ISSUE, IT IS AN ACCOUNTABILITY ISSUE, IT IS A FAIRNESS ISSUE, AND IT IS A QUALITY OF LIFE ISSUE FOR THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE HERE IN NASHVILLE AND PAY THEIR BILLS EVERY SINGLE MONTH. Perhaps we as residents of the town would like to have these concerns brought to the attention of the state legislature and our local representatives for more answers. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you.

Next, who else would like to speak? We appreciate your input, and we certainly understand where you're coming from. We build the very same way, and we're going to strive to be as proactive as we can with the money we have to get us in a better position. But thank you very much. If no one else, yes, Randy.

Mayor and council, if I may point out, on the table we had a letter that the nashville town council posed to the rocky mountain city council back in march you know first of all asking again the reasons for their rate increases and how they came up with those and uh why if we're a wholesale partner of theirs are we being asked to have a 15 increase And then we also reached out to Senator Lisa Barnes, who proposed legislation regarding the taking of money from their electric fund to support their general fund. And there's one other document. Oh, I think it was the email that we actually got from Fenton and Brent, Rocky Mountain Water Resource Director, informing us of the increase. And you are right. It went into effect July 1st. And our residents, if this budget is approved, will see it on their July water bill that they pay in August.

So we encourage you to take a copy of those two letters so you know what we have done as a council and maybe what we can do as a town going forward.

Mayor, for me, for the benefit of the public, the letter that Mr. Lansing just spoke about, I personally, along with several of our department heads, went to that March 1st meeting in the city of Rocky Mountain and presented this letter to them after we had already sent them a text message. notifying them of our standings and how we felt about it. I stood there and I spoke on behalf of this entire town. And to put it bluntly, I think it went through one ear and out the other one, straight across their head. They paid me no mind. I even had one of the council people in Rocky Mountain later on during that meeting to come to me and say he was ashamed of me. and i asked him why he said because he came up here and put all this stuff in the streets in front of it uh their board and their council when i couldn't pick up the phone and call him personally well my my response to him you got the letter last thursday why didn't you pick up the phone and call us which they failed to do uh that's what it's believe it or not we've the person that we asked that was presented us as the to provide justification. As far as I know right now, Randy, we have not received any response to any of those requests, have we?

We have not. And we've followed up several times.

No, we've followed up several times. So, yes, we are in the loop this first day of jail. I'm sorry, you said jail. I'm sorry. Most of you know I'm in law school. You said jail.

My ears got hurt.

I didn't want to throw myself. But anyway, to try to reach a happy meeting with the city of Rocky Mountain. Because I don't think it's fair for us to try to help them pay off the bad decisions that they've made already. This project, like the mayor said before, we've looked at this project hard. We've asked all of our department heads to cut, cut, cut. And then the last meeting, go back and cut again. And you can only cut for so much till we start bleeding when we can't recover. If you remember, if you've been in Nashville long enough, if you remember two years ago, we lowered the tax rate from 61 to 59. Which we never should have done. We should have kept it at 61. So now we're at the position that we've got to go back to that 61 cents per thousand to just make things work. Everything is costing. The fire department costs a lot. Fire apparatus is going through the ceiling. Our town hall, we've already outgrown. The police department needs more space. The fire department could use some more. We'll take that to the fire department, the new fire department fire station. So they're in pretty good shape. Employees, where all this other stuff we're taking home, people don't want to work free. We've got towns like Zebulon, Wake Forest, even Few Breakin' Rain. All we're doing is because of pay scales, and that doesn't apply to them. Because of our pay scales, we are training policemen, we're training firemen, and then a wait for us will come there and offer them a salary that young families cannot afford to ignore. So we train them, and they take them away from us. And it costs us twice as much. to retrain another fireman, another police officer, to go to another, to fill that vacant spot. So believe it, we have done all we could to try to keep this new budget as slim and trim as possible and not cut our throat so we have to go back to the next year. We don't know what next year's gonna bring. And I've already told, asked Brandon, we need to start, Digging some more whales. At one time we had five or six whales. And right now we had six whales at one time.

Seven.

Seven? Yeah. Okay, seven. Well, right now we've got three. But only two are online. But only two are online. One's got PFAS. So we've got to dig some more whales. But digging whales is not cheap. Putting up new waterfowls is not going to be cheap. But we have to try to stay ahead of the curve so we don't just bombard you with red after red increases. So that's what this budget is all about. And for those of you who came up and spoke tonight, I thank you so very much. Makes me feel like you are standing behind what we are trying to do. I see a hand in the way.

I just wanted to make one comment. I did reach out to Lisa Barnes' office again because I was aware of the electrical, the electricity thing. Because we also get, we get natural gas from Rocky Mountain. And so, they were out of town They've been out of office until yesterday. So I think as residents of Nashville, I think we all need to just start reaching out to Lisa Barnes because she's always been very supportive of our town and she's always been very responsive to our requests and she'll usually get back to you. So I think, especially with the election year coming up, I think it's very important that we all do reach out to her with our concerns, especially about what's going on in Rocky Mountain and how it affects us.

I thank you for what you're saying. We've all got to work it. We've all got to work it.

And you know, I have to say on behalf of our department chairs, heads, that during this budget, I could see the true love they have for our town and how they want to provide the services. And bless their hearts, they had to keep cutting and cutting and cutting. But they, I'm sure they got ill with having to cut so much, but they stayed very professional and they are a group of fine professional leaders. Anybody, other comments?

Yes, Maureen Peacock, Nashville resident. We all love Nashville, that's why we're here. And if I could speak to your comment about the training of the police officers and fire departments. If you could put in a caveat that they serve, in our town for a year or two after the training, that would help keep them here as they establish their family in our town. So we don't lose them after you put the money in to train them.

Thank you.

Any other comments? Linda Wells, Nashville. I just have just a question. You know, if you go down to the bank and you rob the bank, what happens to you? You go to jail. But then who is going to be held accountable, or do y'all know at this point, is anybody in Rocky Mount going to be held accountable to where all that money has gone? I think that's what is very, and I know it's disturbing to y'all too, but I think that's what's disturbing to everybody that works so hard in our town to keep our town honest and like you said, a good small town. But then we have to pay for people taking... And we know that money is somewhere, and somebody knows where that money's at.

Or it may be gone and not be there at all.

Well, yeah, it's gone. That's for sure. It's gone. It's gone. But somebody knows where it's at. And I just didn't know if it's going to ever be any... to what has happened down there with that money?

Ms. Will, I hope so.

I know that a lot of the citizens were hoping with the second audit, you know, that things would really happen, but they were given an opportunity to straighten it out from my understanding, so I don't know what to say about that.

Mayor, a lot of the discussion that's being had on tonight, believe you me, and not be treated as a lesser of the partners with Rocky Mountain. I don't want to bash anybody, and I don't think that's necessarily what we're here to do because we're dealing with the national budget. However, a lot of these options that we're talking about, I promise you, was discussed in our budget workshop meeting. How to get more water sufficient. how to bring more whales online, public safety, how to get more people trained and retained, because we don't want to just train, we want to retain. So when we look at a lot of these objects and a lot of these things that are moving parts, We have, I promise you're going through everything that we can possibly go through inclusive of reaching out to some of our local representatives and looking at also the state audit and things of that nature so that we are not just being tossed around as a small town entity. So trust me when I tell you, everything has gone up. If I could be honest, everything has gone up. And we had no choice but to do what we did. And I don't like it. I don't like it. One of the questions that I kept asking was, what about the least of these? What about the folks that can barely pay the rent now? What about the folks who's got to buy medication? What about the folks who's got to feed children? It is what it is. And we have scratched our heads. And as your representatives for the town of Nashville, I assure you, the mayor, the town manager, the clerk, finance department, department heads, all of the council, we put our heads together. And this is the best that we can come up with. The absolute very best. Mr. Hyde.

Do you have any plans to build a new well this year or next year? Concrete plans to actually start.

I will digress to our top manager.

So with the Breedlove subdivision or the Harvest Creek subdivision that was recently built by Mark Sheeran, he reserved a one-acre lot in that subdivision for a future well. So we have our well company under contract right now to do a geo-explore on that. We hope to have that back in August, and that will tell us if it's a good site for a while, and then we can do a test well drill. So as far as solid plans, we don't have a project ordinance for that project yet, But we are working on that.

Randy, can you just tell the audience exactly what goes into obtaining, you know, we have to obtain the property, we have to do the testing, and money amount, how much each well potentially would cost.

Yeah, from the time you site, buy the land, and site the well, we're probably looking at $700,000 to $850,000 per 40-year well. And... I don't know if any of you remember when the town bought the Cook Road property out on Cook Road. They did a test well out there. Unfortunately, that one didn't pan out, and we ended up having to abandon it. But we spent some pretty good money on that. But that's the risk you take when you go after wells. Chief Joyner, did you have something?

Yes, we had a discussion. We had a discussion also. So I want to recap a couple things I think important to hear. We rely on Rocky Mountain for water and about 75% of what right right and our sewer is at 100% so we rely on those two things for Rocky Mountain which we're called a partner but we're

And our infrastructure is 50% lifetime is only a path of lifetime. So those are huge issues we have to deal with in the next five years, ten years, one year. So I'm going to make sure everybody understands that.

Anybody else? If not, do I hear a motion to come out of the public hearing? Second. All those in favor, let it be known by saying aye. Aye. So at this time, do you approve the ordinance 2026-17 adopting the 27 budget and associated fee schedule?

I have one quick correction to the fee schedule. On page 45. Of the budget? Yes. 45 of the budget book. Okay. No, sorry. It's 45 of our agenda book. Okay. When we talk about the town's public works director may charge an additional fee, so if we have a special case.

Jason's not with us this evening. thing i'd like to propose to the council when it comes you know and we we had passed out and hopefully everybody in the audience had a chance one of the proposals staff is proposing with this budget is to change up a little bit how we do yard waste collection and bulk item collection, and then to establish a new program for electronic devices. Nash County is not allowing Nashville residents to take electronic devices to its convenience anymore for disposal and recycling. We can do the same thing. We can collect those, and then when we get enough, we'll get all the same vendor Nash County does and have those picked up. But on the yard waste, currently that's picked up weekly. What we're supposing to do is go the first and third week of the month with a yard waste collection. No feed that's included in your sanitation fees. On the bulk item, right now we do that every Friday. and people call in with their bulk items, and then the guys go out and pick them up. But again, we want to streamline that by not doing it every Friday, but do it once a month, and then have a fee for the bulk item, because we do have to take those to the transfer station and pay to have those disposed of. So the fee that came up for bulk item, what was proposed is $25 for one bulk item. I think we need to maybe not adopt this part of it tonight, if you're so inclined, and come back with a better volume, measurement, some visual that residents can know, you know, what do I get for $25? Is it a half a pickup load? Is it four cubic yards? Four cubic yards is a measure some other towns use, but again, it's hard for the average resident to know what a four cubic yard volume looks like. But I think everybody can relate to half a pickup load. or a full pickup load. We also had in here house cleanups and more and more I thought about it. I don't know if the town of Nashville wants to get in the business of taking away refuse from an entire house cleanup. I think that's why we have GFL, that's why we have Top Dog Disposal and their dumpster fees. It would be my recommendation of the council that we limit it to bulk items of a certain volume for $25 and another volume for $50. If you have more than that volume, then you need to get all the top dog or GFL and have a dumpster delivered to your property so you can continue.

If I may, I think with all due respect, I think this item is outside of the budget. We need to go back to our motion.

Well, I think this is in the budget now.

Well, the fee schedule is, but if you want to pull something out.

So we can pull the fee schedule out just for that item, and we can talk about that after, and we can just adopt the budget.

Yeah, and we can have it on the agenda for the June 17th meeting.

Because that was exactly my concern. I wanted to say that they could change it for size or weight. So if we want to just pull that out, then let's just adopt the rest of the budget.

I agree. Let's pull that out. It readjusts as a big thing.

Are you pulling the yard waste back? The yard waste thing was... We'll revisit the fee schedule in entirety. How about that?

And I make a motion that we adopt the budget, and we'll discuss the fee schedule.

Is there a second? Second.

Okay.

All those in favor of adoption, adopt the budget for 2027, 2026-27, except for the fees that we're going to revisit, let it be known by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you so very much. We sure do. We really do appreciate you. The next item on our agenda is our budget amendments. Budget amendment number 18.

Mayor, we're skipping around a little bit, but that's fine. Let's think of the budget amendments.

Well, we sort of wanted to do the two other ones, but they are already in the yard.

Yeah, it's item 7B, the top of the second page. The electronic device?

Yes, and like I said, we talked about it.

We talked about it a little bit earlier. Oh, but we went on to the other stuff and didn't approve that. Okay.

So I need to have a motion. So that's a new fee. Right. Public Works proposes a curbside collection of electronic devices, TVs, computers, monitors, tablets, gaming systems, by appointment the first Friday of the month with an advance payment of $5 per device.

And that's because they charge us to dispose of it, is that correct?

Yeah, it's just a pass-through. So just for clarification on resistance also, they have to come down and pay the fee first and then schedule it? Yes.

Okay, they don't just stick it out there? Well, if they do, we won't take it until somebody pays the fee and schedules it.

That's kind of problematic. I was going to say, we have tossed around the idea of adding the fee to their bill. Adding the fee to their bill, and they pay more on the following month. But if somebody leaves and leaves it out there,

Does our public works have a ability to keep track of that on the road?

I mean, are they able to? Well, that's why. If somebody pays the fee, then it'll get scheduled, you know, from town hall. I understand that. That's easy. But people don't know that. They're going to put it out there. Mayor, one thing, if I may, with Councilmember Xavier leaving, could you have somebody recognize the fact that he's leaving and excuse him? Okay.

Do I have to make a motion? Yes. I make a motion that Xavier is excused.

There's a second. And for the public, he's leaving not because he just wants to leave. He has some medical issues that he's dealing with at this time. Let's see the game. I don't know.

Okay. So we're on the electronic device. Do we need to put it on there?

Do we put it on there?

No, we haven't got it on there.

Do we need to like finish it? Yeah. We didn't finish it.

We're on paper. Although the paper. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Uh-huh. So. So.

So, Bill, I was going to say, Luke can go ahead on and put on a website. Effective as of July 1st, we will start charging $5 for the pickup electronics, and it will stay on the front of our website. And we can post it in the newspaper. Can you put it on the electric bills, too? We can. We can do all of that, but we cannot make anybody read the bill or the newspaper. Or the emails on the text. There it is.

If everybody's in favor of putting it on the bill, we can just add it to the bill and move on. But if somebody leaves, then it may get passed on to the homeowner if it's a rental part.

But our guys have the ability to do that, keep track of that on the road. I mean, I guess put paper or computer.

Well, the work order system is, I mean, the guys are picking up. They're in the field. So I don't know. It's just going to be a trial and error to see how it works out. I did tell Jason he needs to take pictures because it'll be, you know, I didn't leave it out there or you're charging me and it wasn't there. So it's going to be a lot of back and forth.

All of them have a phone to take pictures with?

They do have a phone, just saying that that's going to be... We've been talking about manpower.

So me and Jason have discussed we're going to go around and take pictures of the electronics. We're going to have it placed up on the van. The folks come in, they can say, I've got TVs, microwaves, computer screens, anything with a prompt like that. And the ladies at the front desk, they will write it up and they'll send it to town hall. We're out in the field. We're going to take notes on it, where it's at and the address, and make sure the customer is having to pay for it before we can pick it up. Thank you, Chair. If that makes any sense. It does, Chair.

It's something we're trying out new, and we just have to work and see how it works out. If it doesn't work out, then we'll revisit and make corrections.

And I guess you can see what's happened to our maintenance department is we're growing, and we don't have funds to hire more people, so we're trying to cut back and serve all of the citizens, but we can't do everything that we always did at the same pace without hiring people. So do I need to, we need to vote on this? To implement the collection and recycling of electronic devices the first Friday of each month by approval with a $5 collection and recycle fee. Do I hear a motion to approve that?

Move to approve.

So second. Second. All those in favor, let it be known by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries. Regard waste, we're going to revisit. And all those. So we're now at budget amendment 18.

Good afternoon.

Um, budget amendment number 18 is to close fund 71, which is an old sidewalk fund, um, has a balance of $4,415, which will be moved back to the general fund.

Do I have your motion to approve the budget amendment number 18, closing out fund 71, an old sidewalk project fund, and transferring the $4,415 balance back to the general fund?

Move that.

Is there a second? Second. All those in favor, let it be known by saying aye. Aye. The next budget amendment, number 19.

Budget amendment number 19 is for the farmers market. They receive $500 from sheets to support the market. Budget amendment number 19 increases FY26 revenues and expenses by $500.

Second. All those in favor, let it be known by saying aye. Aye. Budget item number 20.

LEGISLATIVE AMENDMENT NUMBER 20, WALHART DONATED TOWN AND NATIONAL POLICE DEPARTMENT $2,000 DURING THE GRAND REOPENING. THESE FUNDS WILL BE USED TO PURCHASE SUPPLIES FOR THE FOOD TRUCK, THE COOK TRUCK PROGRAM. LEGISLATIVE AMENDMENT NUMBER 20, INCREASED VOTE, REPRESENTING $2,000 FOR FY20.

DO I HEAR A MOTION TO APPROVE THIS AMENDMENT? ALL THOSE IN FAVOR, IF NOT, I'LL SAY NO.

CAN I JUST GET AN EXCLUSION?

Yeah, I think we have tea shot clear this evening, don't we? Oh, yeah.

I'll give you the mic.

So about a year ago, we started a cook tank, mainly going out and cooking for operations such as the child predator operation or if a natural disaster occurs, we go out and cook for them. No tax dollars have gone into it whatsoever. It's solely been either from less of funds that are selling procurement equipment from the military or grants like this for Walmart. Just a way to give back. We plan to start doing a little bit more in the community in certain areas, but as we're getting it off the ground, we still have to get the supplies forward. Thank you for your explanation.

Do I hear a motion to approve Amendment 21 or did we approve it? I think we did.

We did, okay. It shouldn't be fund balance insurance claim reimbursement. Budget amendment number 21 appropriates. Go ahead. Yeah. Budget amendment number 21 increases revenues and expenditures by $102,629 to cover the cost of the cross-connection reimbursement, which will be reimbursed by the insurance company.

That's why it's not going to come out from that.

It's going to be reimbursed by the insurance company.

Do I hear a motion to approve budget number 21? Second. All those in favor, let it be known by saying aye.

Aye.

And that concludes our agenda, and I would just like to say thanks. one of you for coming out, for speaking and caring. I'd love to see you all at all the meetings, but thank you for coming out anyway. We do appreciate it. Do I have a motion to adjourn? All those in favor, let me know by saying aye. Motion is adjourned.